This invention relates to coolers or ice chests and more particularly to an insert for placement within the container to separate food or drink from ice located below the insert for cooling the food or drink.
In use of coolers or ice chests, food and/or drink (hereafter collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cfoodxe2x80x9d) are located inside the ice chest together with ice cubes for cooling the food. To separate the ice and the food, it is known to employ a four legged table located on a layer of ice at the bottom of the cooler with food located on the table top. Heat transfer between the ice and the food through the thickness of the table provided cooling for the food but to replenish the ice, both the food and the table had to be removed from the cooler. Such an arrangement is inconvenient to users.
The invention seeks to provide an improved ice table to reduce and preferably to eliminate the above user inconvenience.
One embodiment of the invention is an insert for an ice chest having sidewalls upstanding from a base. The insert comprises a table top having dependent support legs and an ice feed tube extending through the table top such that, in use of the insert, the table top is located within an ice chest with the support legs resting on the base. The table top perimeter is located adjacent side walls of the ice chest, spacing the table top from the ice chest base thereby permitting pieces of ice, e.g. ice cubes, ice cubes fed into the feed tube from above the table top to pass through and exit the feed tube into the space between the table top and the base of the ice chest.
In another embodiment of the invention, an ice chest comprises a container including an insulating base and insulating sidewalls upstanding from the base. Within the container is a false floor supported in spaced relation from the insulating base and having a perimeter located close or adjacent to the insulating sidewalls. An ice feed tube secured to the false floor has a bore opening into the space between the false floor and the insulating base. The bore permits passage of ice pieces, e.g. ice cubes through the bore into the space between the false floor and the insulating base. The false floor permits heat transfer across its thickness, thereby facilitating cooling of articles, e.g. food and/or drink, located on and above the false floor.
Advantageously, the ice feed tube has peripheral sidewall slots at its exit end to facilitate passage of ice from the feed tube, and may have a bore about 2-3 times the maximum linear dimension of ice pieces to be fed through the tube.
The foregoing has outlined, relatively broadly, preferred and alternative features of the present invention so that those skilled in the art may better understand the following more detailed description of the invention. Additional features of the invention will be described hereafter. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that the disclosed concepts and embodiments of the invention can be used as a basis for design or modification to produce other structures for carrying out the same or similar purposes as the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also recognize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.